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A vision of future toy retail? P
icture this. You’re heading to Playazon, a new toy shop that’s just opened in town (it’s from the US, apparently). You’ve downloaded the retailer’s app, because the blurb that was pushed through your door said that’s what you have to do, and you’ve decided to take your young nephew Rob with you - who knows, you might even treat him to a toy if you’re feeling generous. Arriving at the store you flash the QR code that appears, courtesy of the app, on your phone and walk in. Two things are immediately apparent. There’s no cash counter and staff are thinner on the ground than in Playland, which is in the ageing mall just around the corner. Rob is impressed. The store appears to have the latest edition (compatible with the graphics card he asked you for and which you bought) of Slay Them All 2, which does sound a mite inappropriate, but well, y’know, young people. While he’s inspecting this and working out an appropriate strategy to get you to dig deep, you happen to glance up. They’re not immediately obvious (mainly because the ceiling is black) but there are cameras - lots of them. They seem to be pointing at you and you don’t really like the implication. But what you do know is that whatever you take off the shelf and put in your bag you will be charged for. With this in mind, you opt to buy something small for Rob. You choose a product (and it’s not a bad selection really - they seem to have most of what you might want or what you’ve heard him talk about) and find Rob. He appears to be on the verge of shoplifting. You always thought his mum wasn’t a terribly responsible parent and determine to have words when you drop him off. Removing Slay 2 from the inside of his jacket, you can’t quite work out why the sole member of staff that was watching him continues to smile benignly. No matter, you leave - safe in the knowledge that you’ve got it all sorted before anything bad happens. Dropping Rob off, you have those prescripted words ready and duly deliver them. Frostiness all round, and then you’re on the way home. Now to take a look at how much that thing you bought actually cost. You peer at your phone and realise that the invoice says you’ve purchased not one, but three items - and that while the item you bought was less than £10, you have spent just over £35. The truth dawns. Rob has indeed proved to be light-fingered and the receipt for his theft is there for you to look at. Somehow - who knows how - your nephew has been included by Playazon as part of your shopping party. Now if you think this sounds somewhat improbable as a vision of future retail, just think about Amazon Fresh. The ‘freshly opened’ store in West
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London’s Ealing makes food shopping easy and ‘seamless’ (the buzzword for retail in 2021, surely) and more are on the way in the near future, in London at least. But beyond the world of food, could checkout-free stores represent a practical proposition, and would shoppers take to them? The answer would seem to be a qualified yes. Once you’ve got over the initial hurdle represented by downloading an app and then got used to deploying it when you enter a shop, this is all pretty easy. There are staff in the Amazon store, of course (the shelves do need to be replenished) but if the checkoutfree principle was extended to toy retail, regular replenishment would be less of an issue owing to the nature of the stock. That said, you’d still need staff to demonstrate how a specific toy works and to tempt onlookers into buying it. At this point, the iceberg that is retail economics becomes visible. Making things easier for shoppers sounds like a good idea and getting rid of queues must be something that is in demand. But what about the cost? The cameras and motion sensors that are integral to the Amazon operation come at a price and currently, with the exception of travel retailer Hudson News in the US, there have been no takers, under licence, of the Amazon tech that’s involved. Even the Seattle tech giant admits that making a profit from its high street ‘just walk out’ stores is something of a distant prospect. But suppose the price does come down - and it will, because that’s the way of the tech world - would you want to have a counter-free toy shop? It’s entirely possible that what I saw in Ealing is a little slice of the future. But it’s a future that is some way off, even with the obvious stimulus provided by Covid-19, because speed is not of the essence in toy retailing. Time is a luxury afforded to few, but you probably set aside more of it when you head into a toy shop than when you enter a supermarket. And on cost, scale matters. Shoppers will like the no checkout idea in principle. But if what’s involved means paying more for the merchandise, or the retailer taking a mild margin haircut, then ‘seamless’ toy shops will not be around anytime soon.
Beyond the world of food, could checkout-free stores represent a practical proposition, and would shoppers take to them?
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John Ryan is Stores Editor of business magazine Retail Week. He has worked for the title for more than a decade covering store design, visual merchandising and what makes things sell in-store. In a previous life, he was a buyer. 15
John Ryan pays a visit to the Amazon Fresh store in London and ponders the prospect of extending the ‘just walk out’ principle to the toy trade
